Pakistan Steel has successfully established two Letter of Credits (LCs) for purchase of 0.11 million metric tons of coal. These LCs have been opened with National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) after the release of first tranche of the bailout package announced by the government. National Bank has opened the LCs for purchase of 110,000 tons of coal from Australia and Canada. This will be delivered through two shipments containing 55,000 tons each.
Pakistan Steel is currently facing massive shortage of raw material and needs immediate supply of coal and iron ore. The management of Pakistan Steel is making arrangements for timely supply of raw material. Besides, opening of two LCs for coal, efforts are being made for procurement of iron ore and it is expected that some deals for import of iron ore will be completed very soon.
Chief Executive Officer of Pakistan Steel, Major General Mohammad Javed (Retd) has commended the efforts of PSM Finance Department for its role in the arrangement of the LCs through the bailout package. He hoped that with the arrival of raw material production of mills improved according to the business plan, submitted to federal government for business plan. These shipments of coal are expected to reach Karachi during next month.
The first instalment of the bailout package of Rs 3.8 billion has been released by federal government just before EID and Pakistan Steel has utilised this amount for procurement of raw materials and made payment of two salaries to PSM employees. The PSM management disbursed the July 2012 salary of PSM employees from this amount.